I learned English to a C2 level, so you can just copy me

this video is brought to you by Squarespace I  learned English to a C2 level and you can just  

copy what I did seriously no secret formulas no  complicated methods Just A system that works and  

the best part you can adjust it to your own life  and to make it super easy for you I put together a  

free guide with all of my best strategies you'll  get a daily immersion checklist a structured  

system to follow and the biggest mistakes that  slow you down so that you can avoid all of them  

the guide is totally free and you can get it  right now by clicking the link in my description  

so let's begin our conversation by talking about  why traditional classes just didn't work for me  

like most people I started learning English in a  classroom when I was in elementary school then I  

went to middle school high school and obviously  when I was a kid I wasn't really interested in  

learning English if somebody were to come up to me  when I was like 10 and tell me Veronica you know  

that one day you would be speaking English  and Spanish in your everyday life I would  

be like what are you saying like I actually hate  foreign languages and I don't want to study them  

I am sure I will not need them and I didn't have  to wait too long for my words to be proven wrong  

because when I turned 14 15 I realized that if I  wanted to go to college I actually needed English  

and so I started thinking about how I was being  taught this language and how I would actually  

want to learn it because I wanted to enjoy the  process of langu language learning I wanted to  

stop hating English as a subject I remember when  I was in high school I attended all of my English  

classes I did all of my homework studied all of  those grammar drills but my listening skills were  

absolutely horrible in fact I was probably the  worst in my class when it came to listening I  

would pass all the written tests but if somebody  were to actually speak to me in English I would  

freeze it honestly wasn't until I got got to  college that I realized that if I wanted to be  

fluent I needed to make English a part of my daily  life I needed to live and breathe English 24/7  

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or domain now let's talk about the actual system  that goth me to see to in English you can honestly  

just follow these steps and adjust them to your  life Step One is flood your life with English  

what I did is I surrounded myself with English  by watching TV shows and also reading books that  

was honestly my foundation and I also remembered  that I was constantly on Reddit that was another  

little tool that helped me produce the language  because I was actively commenting messaging with  

people un Reddit and just writing my own posts  and I know that you know that watching shows and  

reading books is amazing but not just any shows  or any books because I believe that comprehensible  

input is key and comprehensible input is exactly  something that made my foolproof method foolproof  

for me because if I was watching shows that I  could not understand you know I would turn on the  

show and I would be like what is happening here  like I have no idea what they're saying the same  

thing with books if I was reading very complicated  books I would give up because that would not be  

comprehensible input and by comprehensible input  if you're new on my channel what I mean is it has  

to be information that you can mostly understand  like your current level plus one just plus one not  

plus 20 30 100 basically when you're reading  something or watching something I think it's  

better best to understand 95% of the information  at least that's what I did and this is something  

that worked great for me because the thing is  if something is too hard and you're constantly  

looking up words you'll get frustrated and quit  and we don't want that we want you to enjoy it  

and if you notice that you get bored because it's  too complicated like the book is too complicated  

or the show is too complicated then it is too  complicated for you find something e easier so  

when I was in high school I was probably already  at this intermediate level and the show that I  

started watching was Desperate Housewives like  these two shows were something that helped me  

so freaking much because they were fun they  were interesting I could understand most of the  

information and the information that I couldn't  understand it was not too complicated you know  

I was actually interested in understanding that  information I would pause the show I would look  

up the ADM or the phrase and I would save it to my  ay deck and this is basically how I progressed and  

for books I chose young adult fiction because  the language was engaging but not too childish  

and that is why I always talk about young adult  fiction on my YouTube channel it is something  

that is perfect if you're at this intermediate  level if you are experiencing this intermediate  

plateau and if you feel like everything is too  boring everything is too complicated but you're  

not interested in watching Peppa Pig because  it is also too boring because it's too simple  

you know the material can be too boring because  it's either too simple for you or too complicated  

or if you're just completely not interested in it  when it was my first year in college and I had to  

take a train from my apartment to my university it  was probably like 45 minutes to go there and also  

45 minutes to go back what I would do is I would  read this series Miss perrin's Peculiar Children  

it's a book series that is a mix of fantasy  mystery and adventure with a dark and Eerie  

Vibe and guys let me tell you I was so freaking  obsessed with those books that sometimes I would  

be reading the book so intently that I would  just miss my stop I like those books that much  

the story in that series follows Jacob Portman a  teenager who discovers a hidden world of peculiars  

children with strange and supernatural abilities  living in a Time loop LED by Miss perigrine A  

shapeshifting head mistress and the reason why  this series became so known is for its creepy  

vintage photographs like if you're actually going  to buy the books you will see those interesting  

photographs and they inspired the story obviously  the language and those books was really informal  

was really fun I remember learning so many amazing  Expressions so many amazing words because there  

was a lot of dialogue in the books and usually the  dialogue is how people actually speak so that is  

why if you're right now stuck in this intermediate  Plateau if you want to read something in English I  

highly highly recommend this book series you  have to make English your default mode what  

I mean by that is that I basically IM imagined  that I was a native speaker already like let's  

play pretend for a second okay I switched all of  my tech to English my phone my laptop my social  

media everything was in English that is the first  step that is the most basic thing you can do I'm  

a huge proponent of journaling so I would Journal  exclusively in English if there was something that  

I wanted to write in verion in my native language  obviously I would do that but most of my writing  

was done in English I would also write my grocery  lists in English like today I have to go grocery  

shopping and here is what I have to get like  literally guys it is so easy to do in English  

instead of your native language and most of us  go grocery shopping maybe every week or maybe  

even more than once a week and I also planned my  day in English like everything I had to do today  

maybe my workout plans the videos I was watching  to help me work out to do yoga maybe like a gymm  

workout plan like all of those things they were  all in English and also whenever I had a free  

moment I consumed content in English instead of my  native language of course I still lived in Russia  

right so I didn't live in an English-speaking  country so I would still talk to people outside  

in Russian I would hear Russian outside I would  talk to my family my friends only in Russian but  

everything I had control over I would do that in  English and the final step step number three is  

understanding the difference between active  learning and passive learning because for a  

while I was only relying on passive learning and  I couldn't really see results especially when  

I hit that intermediate Plateau I was like what  is happening I don't see any results even though  

I'm watching stuff in English TV shows movies I'm  listening to podcasts but I'm still not improving  

like what do I do and the thing is watching shows  is great but for me it wasn't enough I had to be  

actively engaging with the material let's say  I'm watching a show and instead of just kind  

of like watching it being on my phone responding  to messages and at the same time listening to the  

show a little bit I switched this approach and I  became 100% focused on the show I was watching I  

would pause I would practice shadowing I would  repeat the sentences after the speakers and yes  

this approach makes your movie watching experience  a little bit different because instead of just  

flopping on your couch and relaxing you kind of  have to study like you're watching a show in this  

nerdy way so for movies to recap what I did was  I would replay scenes I would mimic accents and  

I would try to understand the conversation first  with subtitles and then I would turn the subtitles  

off and then I would replay the same scene again  to make sure that I could understand what they  

were saying without subtitles and for books I  would read and listen at the same time and then  

I would actually read the book out loud I would  use Audible honestly I still use Audible like  

when I read books I prefer to listen and read  I'm kind of reading my book and I have my Audi  

book playing and I kind of read with my eyes if  you know know what I mean but if I really want to  

practice my pronunciation if there are some words  I'm not sure how to pronounce I would pause the  

audiobook and I would read the sentence out loud  this approach when you are reading and listening  

at the same time when you're trying to read the  sentences out loud helps you internalize all of  

the structures all of the new words all of the  grammar you're learning by reading this book so  

yes I was practicing exposure I was exposed to The  Language by reading books and watching shows but  

it was a little bit more than that I was actually  absorbing the language like a sponge and guys you  

probably know that I'm a huge organization  nerd and organizing all of my materials my  

stud sessions keeping track of all of the new  vocabulary is also something that helped me  

so much with my English learning journey I have a  notion template that I use for all of my languages  

so if you want to check it out I will leave a link  to the notion template in the description so I  

think it's going to be it for today's video if you  liked it please don't forget to give it a thumbs  

up and subscribe to my YouTube channel I know that  a lot of language Learners also want to improve  

their accents and as you can hear I did change  my accent from a very typical Russian accent  

to a more American one and I did it consciously  because I really wanted to sound more American  

but in this process there were a lot of moments  that made me feel like I was losing a part of  

myself a part of my identity and that is something  that I actually talked about in this video right  

here so if you want to see my experience  just click right here and keep on watching